A baby takes a step and falls down – not just once or twice but over and over again.

Do we yell and rail at this little person? No. Quite the contrary – we smile, we encourage we laugh delightedly.

When does our love affair with creative endeavor turn sour I wonder? Why is it do you think that we don’t offer the same gift to ourselves as we learn something new, or “fail” in an attempt to be perfect?

Look at this picture of my granddaughter Grace. Notice the look of absolute delight on her face as she is fully immersed in her creative moment. I think we can learn a lot from children…..

Where is it, or when is it no longer OK to make mistakes as we learn to grow? When is it that we stop celebrating each little success and misstep along the way?

Why is it that my students want to judge themselves as failures for not producing the perfect painting on their first attempt? Why is it that they only focus on the mistakes and how ‘bad’ it is?

Not only that, why is it that after creating more than 80 art works – I still do the same thing? In fact I think the Inner Critic gets louder and more demanding the older we get. It refuses to allow us to begin at the beginning of something , demanding a level of expertize that we clearly don’t have and criticizing very loudly when we don’t live up to those impossible expectations.

What if, the next time you feel you have failed at something – how would it be to stop – smile to yourself – and celebrate the fact that you tried something! There are no mistakes. Love your attempts – every one brings you closer to what you are trying to achieve.